To the extent that news media and blogs recycle news reports and opinion they are doing the same thing.
That basically is what happens here. On balance you might be forgiven for assuming that journalists on the whole, rather than in the exception, might be more competent. Still the opinions that are given currency in the editorial sections of the newspapers and on the direct to air pieces reflect the powerful interests of the few as distinct from the diversity of the many, a process in which democracy is the loser. That I have to admit is a gross generalization not now based on experience. I simply do not watch television and save myself from a constant stream of propaganda and violence, sometimes presented as news reports.
Blogs are a public medium, and at their best, a public service. They are valuable to democratic civic practice. While the practice may not be consistent, I try to keep in mind that in the deep sense democracy is system of difference and diversity in the search for the best common outcome. With links and open comments a democratic environment on a blog can be aspired to, which private media interests can lose sight of because they are players – king makers – in the political game.
The competence of government can now be judged by the efficacy of their propaganda arms. Rudd and the Federal Government seem to be doing well, whereas the NSW Government, and now its seems the Brown Government in Britain, cannot take a trick. Do we then conclude that media are doing a bad job in the former case, and a better job in the latter? The answer is probably yes.
ABC News reported on Thursday, last week:
This week, ABC 1’s Media Watch dedicated four minutes to the rantings of disgruntled TV journalists over Kevin Rudd’s apparent tight leash on the media, and his efforts to block them at every turn of his leadership trail.
But RMIT adjunct professor in communications and former parliamentary press secretary, Noel Turnbull, says journalists have become too complacent and allowed themselves to be manipulated by the Government.
“There’s always been this myth about the fourth estate but the journalists are part of the problem,” he said.
“The permanent campaign and the day-to-day manipulation of the 24-hour news cycle would not be possible without the conscious or unconscious complicity of journalists.
“They need to actually start thinking about where news is. News isn’t a news conference and news isn’t getting quotes or leaks. How many times do you see something in the media that hasn’t been put there by somebody?”
Mr Turnbull says the Government is not doing anything differently to other Western governments and partly blames the “incestuous” Parliament House environment, which he says is far removed from the real world.
“You have a situation whereby the media actually knows they’re being manipulated and they know they’re being spun through the cycle because it suits them,” he said.
“It packages things and it allows them to report politics within a particular framework without having to go into a great battle. They haven’t got the resources or the time or background to go into a level of depth and analysis that you would need for some of the issues.
“The problem is that every now and again, when things start to get a bit wobbly, it draws attention to itself. The media starts to talk about whether the Government’s doing a good job of manipulating them or not, which I actually think is terribly funny.”
The problem is: if the media reported news would it necessarily be profitable? The answer is probably not. If that is so, there is a deeper problem here than the failing business models of monopoly media organizations which might be blamed on blogs or other more informative media sources. I am struck by the impression that the ABC has created more significant political stories than the commercial media. There might be at least two reasons. Monopoly ownership narrows the vision. The need to profit and cost efficiency reduces the commitment to public service.
Faced with an existential crisis journalists might return to the coffee shops and pubs to take stock to rediscover information that is valuable to the working of a democratic society. Perhaps we are all caught in the political spin machine, but some of us – here blogs matter – are trying to change the underlying story template. Duckpond, for example, aims to be counter-cultural while being fully democratic, a goal for which no commercial operation could aim.
ELSEWHERE:
Lyn at Public Opinion has a more conventional take on the media crisis.